When Sakuno Was
by Troubled Typist
Summary: When Sakuno was four years old was the last time she tripped while trying to learn to walk. She didn’t stumble or fall anymore. She now was just like her grandmother and parents. She was a big girl and she could walk properly. RR


When Sakuno Was…

Troubled Typist

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**A/N:** Due to classes, work, and the new Harry Potter release (yes, I am one of the MANY people who went to the stores at midnight to get the book and finished it before noon – it was good, in case anyone wonders) I've sort of not given myself time to write Ice Princess. I'll get to it ASAP, but I got this story idea and decided to go with it. It's different from what I usually write but I like it and I think you will too. Please enjoy.

**Summary**: When Sakuno was four, eight, and twelve, what happened in her life?

**Rating:** K or G

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When Sakuno was four years old was the last time she tripped while trying to learn to walk. She didn't stumble or fall anymore. She now was just like her grandmother and parents. She was a big girl and she could walk properly.

When Sakuno was four years old, her mother grinned down at her and told her how proud she was that Sakuno was such a good girl while getting her hair done. Instead of being somewhat long and crazy as her mother insisted it had turned into, Sakuno's hair was now short and cut close to her head, but she agreed with her mother. She wouldn't have to have fits when it needed to be combed and her hair wasn't always in her eyes.

When Sakuno was four years old, she heard her mother and father's voice for the last time. They were driving home after her haircut, and the day was warm and sunny and perfect. The days Sakuno loved the most, until another car (bright blue, with a yellow license plate, and a woman screaming on a huge cell phone driving it) hit them head on. Her parents tried to swerve, she remembered, but that it was to late.

When Sakuno was four years old, time stood still. Metal creaked around her and she saw blood and some of her pretty short hair was wet and she remembered voices saying that there was no way in hell that someone survived, that there was no way, the cars were literally to compacted together to let anyone live.

When Sakuno was four years old, someone called her 'miracle' but she didn't knew what it meant. They said it as they looked in the car. It was a young EMT who looked in, scared as to what they would find. They were shaking, as though they had never seen a car crash like this before, and were expected to do something about it. The EMTs voice said, "Hello?" sounding very scared, and Sakuno, being the manner-wary little girl her parents had raised her to be, answered calmly back, "Hello." That was when the EMT called her miracle.

When Sakuno was four years old, she went to the hospital for the first time for herself since she was born. The nurses and doctors looked over her, all with smiles, some real, some forced, but they all touched her hair, and kept saying 'miracle' and 'impossible' to themselves as they did. They poked and prodded her, checked her heart and listened to her blood and felt her bones, but after a few hours, her grandmother came and picked her up.

When Sakuno was four years old, she truly felt what being alone was like. She was always a shy girl, and had a hard time talking to people her own age. After the car crash, she was okay that she didn't see her parents, but for the first night in her young life, neither her mother nor her father came into her room to tuck her in. Her grandmother did, and kissed her on the cheek, but she didn't tell her a story from her past, like her mother, or a story from a book like her father. She said nothing and the silence stung Sakuno like the bee sting she got a few days prior, but different.

When Sakuno was four years old, she went to her first visitation. It was the first time she had seen her parents in days and she ran to the caskets and tried to wake them up, wondering why her parents were sleeping when there were people coming. She knew people were coming because her grandmother told her so and she wasn't the type of person to lie. She touched her dad's hand and squeezed because she wasn't tall enough to do much else, but something felt wrong. Instead of the warm skin she associated with her father, she felt something cold and smooth. Her grandmother got to her before she could repeat this with her mother, and swatted Sakuno on her backside, telling her harshly to go wash her hands. Sakuno's eyes welled up with tears as a cousin from the family led her from the room, away from her grandmother and parents, into a bathroom. Sakuno's hands had a substance on them and Sakuno stared at it for a few moments and sniffed it, wondering what it was. She looked at her cousin and splayed her hands in front of her. "What's on my hands?" she asked. The cousin looked nervous but answered, "A type of make-up. They put it on dece-um, they put it on dead people to make them look more alive."

When Sakuno was four years old, she learned what death was, and the make-up that covered her father, right down to his hands, was what drove the point home. Before she could cry into her hands, the cousin that came into the room gently took her hands and put them under the faucet and washed her hands for her, even going as far as to dry her hands, and while Sakuno remembers all of this, she still couldn't remember for the life of her what the cousin looked like.

When Sakuno was four years old, she started to trip and stumble again, though just a few weeks prior, she got the hang of putting one foot in front of the other.

When Sakuno was four years old, she didn't want to leave her house, but her grandmother told her that it wasn't healthy for a young girl to be cooped up like this. Sakuno said it wasn't healthy for a young girl like her not to have parents, but when she saw the shocked look on her grandmother's face, she felt like the house _was_ getting to stuffy and went outside and to the park that was a few blocks away. Her grandmother wouldn't like the fact she went alone, but Sakuno didn't think about that then and went to the swings, sat down, and pushed off.

When Sakuno was four years old, she met a boy by the name of Tezuka Kunimitsu. He sat down beside her and glared. He was a few years older than she was but even though he seemed mean, she didn't feel as though she had to be worried. The boy seemed surprised that she wasn't afraid of him. For over an hour, the two children swung by each other, knowing the other was there but not acknowledging the fact.

When Sakuno was four years old, she got her first friend. It was the eighth day of the two of them swinging in the park when another older boy came to the park, stole her lunch and left her with nothing to eat. Her grandmother now knew where she was and gave Sakuno lunch before she left so she could keep playing. When Tezuka saw this, he grabbed Sakuno lightly by the wrist and took her into the small ma and pa restaurant that was close to the park. She didn't realize it, but the owner of the shop was Tezuka's uncle and the man gladly took the money that Tezuka had on him (around eight dollars in U.S. money) and came back with two meals that was easily worth three times that for the two youngsters. Together, the two of them ate in silence, as neither of them had actually talked to one another yet. Tezuka only knew of Sakuno's name because her grandmother scrawled it on the side of her paper lunch bag and he thought it sounded nice. She still didn't know his name.

When Sakuno was eight years old, Tezuka went away. By now, she knew his name and they did more than just go to the park. He knew about her parents, and she knew how he lived with his mom and how his father was a cruel man, yet kind in his own way ("Really!" Tezuka would insist but Sakuno had doubts, as when Tezuka tried to defend his father, he always sounded unsure, yet he never did in anything else. Sakuno never met his father, and Tezuka said he'd never let her.). Tezuka came over to her house and Sakuno thought that it was to see her, but she was surprised when she found out it was because of her grandmother. Apparently Tezuka wanted to get on the tennis team when he went to Junior High and wanted to see if the coach thought he was good enough. Her grandmother wouldn't let her watch Tezuka as he showed her what he could do in tennis and this confused Sakuno, as Tezuka let her watch him practice all the time with no complaint. Not that he ever said much, so if it bothered him the Sakuno watched him practice, he never showed it.

When Sakuno was eight years old, she told her grandmother she hated tennis. When her grandmother asked her why, Sakuno said that it took Tezuka away. She didn't notice the uneasy look on her grandmother's face, or the fact that it meant guilt. She didn't know that her grandmother told her that Tezuka needed to spend more time doing things tennis related, and that some people might be slowing him down. Her grandmother didn't know that the only time Tezuka wasn't doing something tennis related was when he was with Sakuno.

When Sakuno was twelve years old, she met a boy who was good at tennis, and she gave him the wrong directions to a tennis thing that her grandmother needed to be at, on accident of course…

_-fin-_


End file.
